


Burn for Me, Burn it All

by DhampirsDrinkEspresso



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arson, Bartender Ben, Drinking, F/M, Fireball versus Jack Fire, Mentions of sexual activity, Songfic, college student rey, no actual smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26284459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DhampirsDrinkEspresso/pseuds/DhampirsDrinkEspresso
Summary: Baby all that's left of our love now is ashesThank God you left the matches-Matches, Sammy KershawThey burn fast and hot and bright, and in the end are ashes.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	Burn for Me, Burn it All

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been rattling around in my head for months but I just do not have it in me to do the angsty, multi chapter thing for it.
> 
> And yes, this one has a playlist too...initial inspiration was a shuffled playlist that threw together Sammy Kershaw's "Matches" and Florida Georgia Line's "Sippin on Fire," so this is technically another songfic, I guess...a weird, short, one shot, songfic.
> 
> [Burn For Me Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7MkfOzadjK8Bn4QhLrcGVq?si=UiHQA_raQAyklIEKL-jtXQ)

He turns the bottle up and drinks, waiting for the inevitable. He can smell the smoke, hear the crackling flames, the pop and shatter of glass as it gives way to the heat.

It’s strange. He didn’t expect it to be quite this fast.

He drinks again.

Sirens whine in the distance. Someone must have seen, must have called it in.

Fucking good Samaritans.

_“My hero!” She says with a laugh as her blind date for the evening flees._

_He likes that, her laugh. It’s open, carefree, and her face lights up with it._

_She shifts, settling more comfortably on the bar stool as her face becomes serious. “No, really, thank you for the rescue. I don’t know what my friends were thinking, trying to set me up with that guy.”_

_He can’t help a small laugh of his own as she rolls her eyes. God help him, he thinks it’s **cute**. “So, can I get you a drink or are you going to leave me now?”_

_What is he doing? He doesn’t flirt with customers. Doesn’t really flirt with **anyone**._

_She laughs again and he swears his heart stutters. “Hm, I’m feeling spicy tonight,” she says with what he’s sure is a flirty grin. “Maybe a shot of something with cinnamon?”_

_He gives his suggestions and it surprises him when she chooses Jack Fire over Fireball._

_She holds out a hand after the first shot. “I’m Rey, by the way.”_

_He shakes her hand. “Ben.”_

_“Bartender Ben. I like it.”_

_She’s still there after closing._

_They leave together._

The first of the trucks roll up, and then keep going.

Huh. That’s weird.

He takes another swig and steps back, watching in silence as the flames break through the roof, reaching out for the stars.

_She goes home with him, but they don’t have sex, not that night. He knows how much she’s had to drink. He tucks her into his bed and spends a restless night in the La-Z-Boy recliner his dad had always refused to part with. His feet hang off the footstool but it’s still more comfortable than the loveseat. He can barely even sit on that thing. No way he could sleep there._

_He makes her breakfast. She’s not too terribly hungover, but they still don’t have sex, despite her best efforts to convince him a quick tumble wouldn’t hurt._

_“You deserve better,” he says simply._

_She tries not to let him see her cry at that._

Finally, a truck turns, rolls to a stop rather than passing by. He tries to stop them. Shakes his head. “Just let it burn.”

He takes another drink.

Tries to anyway.

Bottle’s empty.

He curses, hurls it at the side of the building. When it shatters, he thinks it matches the way he feels.

_She keeps coming back. Rey. His Rey, now._

_Most nights she doesn’t even drink, just sits at the end of the bar and waits for him. When it’s slow they grab a table, have dinner and talk and laugh._

_When it’s busy she waits quietly, sipping water and thumbing through notes and text books._

_She’s nearly done with school, only a semester left. It’s taken a long time, almost twice as long as “usual” but she’ll get her degree in the spring._

_She works at least three jobs (two part time, one full) but she still jumps in to help him when it’s especially busy._

It’s not until the firefighters start cursing about “crazy idiots” that he realizes where the second fire is and he turns, eyes wide as the house collapses in on itself.

They hadn’t moved in yet, construction’s not even finished. Some of the rooms are still just framed out, walls not even up yet.

Good riddance. It wasn’t going to be finished anyway.

Not now.

Not with her gone.

_The sex is always incredible. Rey likes trying new things, and he’s happy to oblige, bending her over random furniture, skinny dipping in the pond, moving from tying her with the old, silk neckties he abandoned after his dad died and he took over the bar to actual lined and padded cuffs._

_He has to have the pool table at the bar re-felted after they ruin it._

_Twice._

_Worth it._

_The best moments are after, though, when she collapses against him in a sweaty heap, huddling closer and kissing whatever parts of him she can reach until one or both of them recovers enough to move, to turn and hold the other._

The police show up, and his mother. He doesn’t answer their questions.

He only says, “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter anymore. Let it all go. Just let it burn.”

_They make plans. A house. A dog or two. Maybe even marriage and kids in the distant future. What they have is real, it’s forever._

_It’s terrifying._

He doesn’t fight when he’s cuffed.

The bar crumbles in a heap, one wall left partially standing.

And one bar stool.

Rey’s. The one on the end where she’d been sitting the night they met.

It will settle, charred bits and ashes. All that’s left of what they could have been.

_He starts to panic._

_She deserves better than he can give her now._

_His old boss has been calling, trying to drag him back, even offering to buy out the bar._

_He doesn’t want to go back._

_But Rey…_

_He could give her so much more._

_They fight about it. Constantly._

_She leaves in a huff a few times._

For safety, everyone’s in the clear lot between the house and the bar. He can see her now, hands cuffed behind her back, stubborn set to her chin. Lando’s reading her the Miranda rights.

As they tug her to her feet, march her past him to one of the waiting squad cars, their eyes lock, heads turning to watch each other until they can’t anymore.

Ben laughs.

Once.

Again.

Then he can’t stop, and he’s gasping for breath, chest aching and at some point the laughter has turned to tears. His mother mutters something about a lawyer, and temporary insanity.

He isn’t sure if she means for him or for Rey.

Maybe both.

_She’s furious he’s even considering it, incensed he had the audacity to take Snoke’s call. They fight again, but this time she leaves._

_Really leaves._

_Poe and Finn help her move her things out of the doublewide near the bar._

_His things (well, technically, his dad’s) are all still there but the place is just empty._

_Because she’s gone._

They can’t figure out what to do with him. Nor with Rey.

It was all private property. He cancelled the insurance before he lit the match, intending to watch the bar go up first, then the house. No one else had been nearby.

But Rey had beat him to it, torching the house before the flames even really got going in the bar.

There are charges filed, but his mother has been busy.

They’ll both have probation, and community service, but other than that it’s all suspended sentences, time served.

Their records will be expunged as soon as the probation period is up.

Somehow, she even keeps Rey from being deported.

He’s pretty sure his mother has utilized some less than legal means.

_The bar closes. For good. He just…can’t do it._

_Not anymore._

_Everywhere he looks he sees her, smells her, **feels** her._

_It wasn’t going to last much longer, anyway, and now, well he needs a fresh start._

_A cleansing._

“I’m not sorry,” Rey says.

It’s the first time they’ve seen each other since the fire. _Fires._

“About the house. I’m not sorry.”

He nods.

“But I am sorry about everything else. About us.”

He looks at her then, _really_ looks.

“I don’t…I love you, Ben, and I always will, and I’m sorry I left, sorry I ran.” She’s wringing her hands, fighting tears. “I know what it’s like to have people leave and I’m _sorry._ ”

Embers still glow in the ashes of _them._

He’s holding her and she’s crying, and he might be too but it’s okay.

It’s all going to be okay.

Trial by fire. Cleansing. A fresh start.

His mother’s not surprised when they elope. No one is, really.

“No more fires,” his mother says. “Not literal ones anyway.” She looks at them and she’s…happy, so very happy.

No.

No more actual fires.

But he burns for Rey.

And she for him.

And that is everything.


End file.
